Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	spiritual_a	zeal_n	zealous_a	46	3	8.4661	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85088	Two treatises The first, concerning reproaching & censure: the second, an answer to Mr Serjeant's Sure-footing. To which are annexed three sermons preached upon several occasions, and very useful for these times. By the late learned and reverend William Falkner, D.D.	Falkner, William, d. 1682.; Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.; Sturt, John, 1658-1730, engraver.	1684 (1684)	Wing F335B; ESTC R230997	434,176	626

various methods and sometimes in a more strange and extraordinary manner Thus the wrath of (c) Jos Ant. Jud. l. 11. c. 8. Alexander who went against Jerusalem with the Spirit of an enraged enemy was fully appeased to the admiration of those who accompanied him when he met Jaddus the High Priest in his Priestly Garments and remembred that before he came out of Macedonia such a person in that habit appeared to him and encouraged him in his enterprize And when a Diploma was signed to create trouble to the Bohemian Church when Maximilian the second was Emperour 1565 (d) Comen Historiolae 109. Comenius acquaints us that he who carried it going over the Bridge of Danubius without the Gates of Vienna the Bridge at that instant broke and though this person was taken up dead by some Fishers the Diploma was never seen after and thereby that Church enjoyed rest and peace And for the preservation and security of his Church in the time of its greatest oppositions he raised up a Constantine and in the same age soon removed a Julian And we have had instances of Gods care towards the Reformation of our Church in defeating many oppositions contrived against it and our Religious Princes and in restoring it again to its former establishment after our late troubles and also in ordering the Reign of Queen Mary to be short and that she should have no issue and that after her there should be a succession of many excellent Princes 35. Ans 3. 3. Religion was never more opposed than when Christ was Crucified Religion can never be opposed with greater enmity and malicious designs than it was when our Saviour suffered Yet then he reviled not nor allowed S. Peters rashness but left us his example for our imitation The Church of God upon earth was never without the enmity of the evil one and those whom he could engage against it but at sometimes their opposition is more vehement than at others When our Lord was crucified the Devil entered into Judas to effect it the Jews aimed utterly to root out the Christian name The power of the Jewish Church and Sanhedrin was then engaged against it and gained both Herod and Pilate into a compliance with them And there were great oppositions against Religion even fiery trials 1 Pet. 4.12 When yet S. Peter requires Christians to follow the example of our Lords patience and meekness and to reverence Superiours But with us blessed be God our Laws establish the true Religion our Clergy defend it and press the practice of it and our Prince whom God preserve upholds the profession of it But the Primitive Christians who lived under Pagan Rulers who persecuted the Church behaved themselves with more honourable respect towards them than many now do towards those Christian Governours and Spiritual Guides who encourage and promote Christianity 36. 4. True zeal hath respect to all duty Ans 4. True zeal for Religion is of excellent use and very desirable but it consists in pious and holy living not in passionate and sinful speaking And it must be uniform in minding all the parts of duty which are incumbent on us But they who are careless and negligent in great and plain duties can have no true love and conscientious regard to Religion and therefore no zeal for it but it is something else which they miscall by that name True zeal will put men on diligent constant and devout attendance on Gods publick worship and the holy Sacraments upon solicitous thoughts and care for the Churches peace and Union upon all the exercises of piety to God and of righteousness charity meekness and due obedience to man And particularly both with respect to the happiness of another world and a comfortable estate in this it will oblige men to curb the rashness and sin of their words and expressions according to that advice of the Psalmist and the Apostle S. Peter 1 Pet. 3.10 11. He that will love life and see good dayes let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile Let him eschew evil and do good let him seek peace and ensue it 37. Wherefore let every person uncharitable reproaches against all men to be avoided as he values his own happiness and as he would approve himself a true Disciple of Christ beware of this sinful behaviour of slandering or reproaching others And not the speaker only but he that heareth such things with delight is guilty of the same uncharitableness and in like manner serves his own sinful passions and gives encouragement to the practice and spreading of this vice S. (e) Bern. de modo bene vivendi Bernard therefore well adviseth all men to avoid a detractor as a Serpent who casteth forth his poyson because besides his own sin he who willingly gives ear to him becomes guilty also To the same purpose S. Austin S. Hierome and others who sometimes speak of the contumelious ear or that mens ears as well as their tongues may render them justly chargeable with the sin of reproaching He that in this case speaks rashly or uncharitably or that entertains such expressions with pleasure must ordinarily intend a prejudice to another and a blemish to his reputation and this very intention speaks some degree of malice or ill-will contained in this sin and sometimes a very high degree thereof But the main hurt and mischief fal's upon the offender himself being contained in his sin and consequent upon it He like the man whose Spirit is so far envenomed as to take poyson in his mouth to spit it at another is in a direct way to ruine himself whatsoever prejudice the other may sustain by him So S. (f) Hier. in Ps 119. Hierome declared detrahimus illi illi non nocemus sed nostras interficimus animas we speak unworthily of another but the main dammage doth not fall upon him but we destroy our own souls 38. and repented of Let all those therefore who have been guilty of this transgression heartily repent thereof that they may find mercy with God But it must be considered that repentance in matters of injury to men by word or deed doth not only require a desisting from the further practice of the sin with due sorrow for the former miscarriage but also a careful undertaking to make satisfaction for the injury done It is therefore here requisite that the offender do readily freely and ingenuously retract what hath been spoken amiss and vindicate him who hath been injuriously aspersed and also endeavour that his future kindness towards him may be equivalent to his past unkindness And the man who refuseth this is as far from integrity as he who wrongs his Neighbour in his Possession or Estate is from honesty if he only forbear the repeating new acts of theft fraud or violence but still detains without restitution what he injuriously possessed himself of which of right belongeth to another man 39. A candid

(f) Chrys Hom. in Ps 44. S. Chrysostome there is nothing shameful but sin and if all the world shall reproach thee and thou not reproach thy self there is no shame in all this But it is never safe to join with a multitude either in the doing or speaking evil And the state of every offender when the sin grows common is upon this account the more dangerous because he is hereby the more like to be encouraged in his sin and the more unlike to repent of it and sometimes he may be by this means so emboldned in evil as to think it strange that others run not to the same excess speaking evil of them And thus his case is like that of a man who is carried away with a fierce and violent stream which leaves but little hopes of his escaping drowning Wherefore it is as reasonable that men be careful to avoid spreading vices as that they should be cautious and fearful of infectious diseases 9. Thirdly This disorder is prone to prevail 3 It is a sin earnestly pursued by many who appear strict and zealous about Religion not only among men of careless and negligent tempers but also among them who are strict scrupulous and conscientious in matters of Religion Thus was our Master treated with infamous reproaches by them who were zealous for the honour of God Such were the Pharisees and the devouter sort of the Jewish Nation such was S. Paul himself before his conversion being exceeding zealous for the law and yet a blasphemer and injurious And such were those unbelieving Jews to whom S. Paul bears record that they had a zeal for God but not according to knowledge Rom. 10.2 These were members of the Jewish Church were strict in many things both of practice and opinion and were very earnest to make Proselytes And besides the other Sects of the Jews who all joyned together against our Lord the holy Scriptures represent none more vehement in their oppositions and reproaches than the Pharisees who as S. Paul declares were of the exactest and straitest Sect of the Jewish Religion Acts 26.5 And though Josephus sometimes prefer the Essens before them yet he also tells us that (g) Joseph de Bel. Jud. l. 1. c. 4. the Pharisees were reputed to be more Religious than other men and more strict in their interpretation of the laws But there was so much pride and passion mixed with their zeal that they were vehement against those who did not comply with them in laying a great stress upon such things wherein Religion was not concerned yea and upon those things al o which really tended to the undermining of true piety and they were eager against them who would inform them better and hence they set themselves in opposition against Christ and his Apostles 10. Misguided zeal inflameth passions and sharpneth tongues There is nothing that more sharpens the tongues of men against others than the mistaken principles of a misguided conscience which was that by which the Jews acted against the Saviour of the World both reviling and crucifying him Hence also before the great Apostle was a convert he thought he ought to do many things against the name of Jesus Act. 26.9 And hence the Apostles and other Christians were upbraided and ill intreated in that high degree that they that killed them thought they did God service Joh. 16.2 And hence divers Hereticks and those who were engaged in Errors and Schisms and divisions vented many contumelious and reproachful censures against the true Church and its members So did the Gnosticks Montanists Novatians Donatists and others anciently and all dividing Sects of later times 11. For instance the Donatists raised such high accusations against the true Christian Church as (h) Aug. Ep. 50. Ep. 162. passim to reject it from being a true Church and not to own any but themselves to be the Church of Christ and thereupon not only rebaptized all others who came to them but by savage cruelty and violence forced divers to be rebaptized Sect. III. And other reproachers but not in the like degree were embraced by the other Sects For all men who have pretended to Christianity till some late unreasonable notions in our present age which discard all obligation to visible and external Unity and publick communion in the offices of the Church have been sensible that they could never justifie their own departure from the Church unless they could lay some such thing to her charge as made their secession necessary Among these some were more fierce and furious who yielded their conscience to the service of their affections and passions as too many of late have done both in the Church of Rome and of other parties in our late unhappy times And when S. Austin with lamentations spake of the incursions of the Barbarous Nations into France Italy Spain and Egypt he thought the inhumane cruelties some of which he particularly mentions of the (i) Aug. Ep. 122. Sic vastant Ecclesias ut Barbarorum fortasse facta mitlora sunt Donatists and especially the Circumcelliones towards them who held communion with the Church were rather more savage than what was commited by those barbarous people And indeed no rage is fiercer than that which is enflamed by an irregular and disordered zeal And others who continue in a milder temper though they abstain from outrages yet by their misapprehensions are engaged in unreasonable censures of the Church and publick order and of the Rulers who appoint and establish it 12. But zeal when not governed by piety prudence truth and goodness and not allayed with meekness is like a fire violently breaking out in any part of a building which threatens the wasting and ruine of the whole And it is never safe to promote or entertain unjust reproaches raised even by zealous men when these very things though they may be popularly taking to engage a party yet are they a great blemish to their profession uncharitableness and rash censoriousness being a manifest evidence of the want of a true Religious temper wheresoever it prevails To this purpose S. James speaking of that man who is wise by the wisdom which descends from above or who is truly pious and Religious directs this wise and good man Jam. 3.13 to shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom And he then assures us that where there is bitter zeal or envying and strife this wisdom discendeth not from above but is earthly sensual and devilish v. 14 15. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure and then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated or perswaded viz. to what is good just or reasonable SECT III. The monstrous and unreasonable strangeness of those censures which have been unjustly charged on the most innocent and excellent men and particularly on our blessed Lord and Saviour himself 1. The most infamous calumny sometimes raised against well deserving men IN sensible things

preserve or recover men from the snares of sin and to guide them into a true obedience to the will of God and the doing those things which are to the honour of Christianity by calming the unruly disorders of mens minds Where persons are engaged in any unaccountable practice with passion and fierceness there is no case wherein sin hath a greater dominion and government over man than in this For whilst any are carried on with rash heats these blind their minds and hinder them from a sober consideration of what they ought to do And there is no sinful indisposition wherein men are more averse from good counsel and more forward to be displeased with and oppose them who would direct them better And (z) Arist Ethic l 1. c. Aristotle observed from Hesiod that he who will neither consider things rightly of himself nor be advised by others is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of whose good there is little hope Wherefore he who will endeavour the recovering of men from such sins must be prepared to bear the hard words of such offenders which was the lot of Christ himself of his Apostles and many of the ancient Fathers in the like case Even as he that would be most instrumental to extinguish a prevailing fire may be scorcht and must be touched with some sense of the heat and flame 31. 2. It is impious to think the breaking the laws of God to be our interest Secondly Consider how much it savoureth of impiety that the urging the plain duties of meekness patience humility and reverence to Superiours should be thought things of ill and hurtful consequence and that passionate fierceness and disobedience should be esteemed things good and useful for mankind As if those things which God commands were for the prejudice of man of whose welfare he hath so great a care This would represent the Kingdom of Christ to be divided against it self and perswade men that if they will take care of their own true interest and do what is best for themselves they must cast off the yoke of Christ and comply with the temptations of the Devil But whoever will talk or judge at this rate if he do not stop his course and return from the error of his way is in a fair progress towards the renouncing his Christianity and the denying the wisdom and goodness of God in governing the world But then he must withal contradict the sentiments of his own reason and conscience since no man can think it just and fit that himself should be thus treated either with uncharitable censures and unjust reproaches and calumnies by others or with an untractable disrespect and an irreverent and undutiful behaviour from his own Children and Servants It would be folly enough for Subjects to think that those prudent Laws which are the contrivance of the wisest men are their burden and dammage and that it would be far better for every man to be wholly left to his own will when as the (a) Cic. pro Cluent Roman Orator truly observed Laws are the bond and the soul and life of civil society and the foundation of liberty and we are therefore subject to Laws that we may enjoy freedom legum idcirco servi sumus ut liberi esse possimus But it would be far more unaccountable to have such disparaging thoughts of the directions and commands of the infinitely wise God And it hath been a great part of Satans business in the world to perswade men to reject useful truth and rules of practice by raising prejudices against them and those that teach them This he oft doth by pretending that they are against the interest of men and that some ill design is laid by them who propose them In this manner he began with our first Parents in Paradise and so he proceeded against the Christian Religion as I have shewed 32. Obj. 2. But it may be further objected Obj. 2 If Religion be concerned ought not men to be zealous If Religion be concerned and in danger doth it not become every good man to be moved and zealous in this case and both to speak and act what may tend to its preservation To which I shall return four things by way of Answer with desire that they may all of them be seriously considered 33. Ans 1 Yes in Christian and prudent actions not in sinful passions Ans 1. It is very requisite he should in such a case be zealous and active as a Christian in the diligent exercises of an holy life and in frequent and devout prayer and supplication to Almighty God to procure his protection and defence against all the enemies of his Church and their ill designs And it is proper also for him to be active as a wise man in the use of all lawful and prudent means which agree to his place and station But he must not be active as an evil doer in giving himself the liberty to vent passionate slanders and uncharitable reproaches against others or to behave himself undutifully towards his Superiours If a Ship be in a storm it is desirable that its passengers should both pray to God and in their places put to their helping hand for its security but it very ill becometh them at that time to fall into quarrels with them who take the best care for its safety And it must be considered that (b) Just Mart. Paraen p. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Religion is not so much a name as a business of life and practice And therefore they who speak of shewing a great respect to Religion by disobeying its precepts do really lose Religion under a pretence of preserving it for though men may deceive themselves it is a truth of undoubted certainty that whosoever seemeth to be religious and bridleth not his tongue that mans Religion is vain it is an empty appearance and not profitable to himself 34. 2. Gods Kingdom needeth not the help of Satan and sin Ans 2. Religion can never be so in danger that God should need any sinful practices of men to uphold his interest His Kingdom is not so weak that it cannot stand without the assistance of the works of the Devil Such methods may help forward the ruine of a Church but will never be found the true way to its settlement and establishing Christ who founded his Church did support it when it was in the midst of persecutions even in its weak beginnings And the exercises of piety and all good conscience accompanied with innocent prudence are the way to put us under his care and intitle us to his protection but he will have no concord with Belial When the pressures of the Israelites were heavy in Egypt God delivered them from their Bondage And when their transgressions had at other times exposed them to great calamities and sufferings upon their returning to him he raised up Judges and gave them redress And he knows how to defend those who fear him by

these false witnesses had to consider seriously what guilt they contract upon themselves But the upright man is no false accuser but hath a conscientious respect both to truth and charity so that he transgresseth against neither Our Lord blamed the Jews in many things but charged them with nothing but what was certainly true He called them hypocrites but he fully knew their temper and understood what was in man Indeed the censure of hypocrisie is not fit for other men to make use of in ordinary cases except it be where persons certainly manifest a vicious looseness of life and yet will sometimes seem very earnest and forward about purity and Religion or where themselves shall more privately declare their disesteem of what they publickly appear exceeding zealous for And partly by this Rule (g) Eus Eccl. Hist l. 2 c. 1. Simon Magus was charged with hypocritical dissembling a respect to Christianity 7. Secondly The second Rule is sobriety and a well composed temper of mind A just censure of the practices or Principles of others must be soberly managed when oft-times the opprobrious tongue is rash and heady and puts men upon running out of their places and stations and out of themselves also Hence some are forward to be inquisitive into the lives and behaviour of others and to pry into them with a narrow and curious search to see what they can discover to speak ill of while in the mean time they do not duly reflect upon themselves and examine and consider their own wayes These act against that sobriety which Religion requires and fall under that sharp censure of our Lord against them who behold the mote in their brothers eye but not the beam in their own Mat 7.2 3 4 5. And there are some who censure others by sinister judging and odiously representing the intentions and designs of their words and actions beyond what is evident These without due reverence to God or charity to their Neighbour so far usurp the place of God as to pass sentence on the inward thoughts and dispositions of the minds of men but they proceed herein neither according to the rules of goodness nor of righteousness And they also offend against this Rule who in speaking or writing against others let loose their expressions to gratifie their passions and fierce heats beyond what is sober and comely I acknowledge that sharp reproofs are in some cases very seasonable and proper and some practices and Doctrines are so greatly evil that it well becomes them who are lovers of goodness An angry temper to be avoided to express a pious indignation and abhorrence towards them nor is it alwayes blameable to expose some wild extravagant fancies to the just contempt of others But in an undue manner to vent expressions of wrath or reproach or of scornfulness or scurrility and to treat others with an angry and waspish temper and instead of calmness to raise a storm of rage and fury these things are evil in themselves being contrary to the meekness and gentleness of Christianity and savouring of the fruits of the flesh and the root of bitterness and they are also very unsuitable to all sorts of men Such a temper is in several respects the worse in them who defend evil error and falshood because they have no just reason to express their displeasure against the things they reject or against the persons with respect to the ill influence of their assertions and what aspersions they cast upon the defenders of the truth have some reflexion on the truth it self and this their behaviour speaks their greater averseness from it and oft makes them more stedfastly perverse in their error And this method is also very unbecoming the defenders of such excellent things as truth and goodness because they neither need nor approve such unworthy Artifices in the managing their cause and the use of such things brings a disparagement and disadvantage to the best cause and it is most suitable to truth and goodness to appear like themselves every way blameless and unexceptionable 8. They also act against sobriety and irreverence to Superiors and a due government of themselves who take upon them frowardly and irreverently to censure their Superiors and to defame them and thereby to lessen and vilifie their reputation and Authority Such persons act against the duty of their places as inferiours in which state they ought out of reverence to God and his Ordinance and out of respect to men also to honour them who are over them Yea though there may be some real fault they may not make it their business to expose them This was the miscarriage of Ham in his behaviour towards his Father Noah And it is noted both by (h) Ambr. de Noe Arca c. 30. S. Ambrose and by (i) Chrys Hom. in Gen. 9. S. Chrysostome that Ham in doing this undutiful action is particularly expressed to be the Father of Canaan not only as S. Ambrose speaks ut vitio authoris deformaretur haereditas that this might be a blemish and disparagement to his posterity who descended from him but because on this occasion of Ham's irreverent disrespect to his Father Canaan his Son and his Posterity were under a curse and doomed to a state of subjection Gen. 9.25 And therefore if any men should neither have any fear of God nor regard to themselves if they have any respect to the good of their posterity they are thereupon concerned to honour those who are in superior relations to them 9. The ancient Councils (k) Conc. Constant c. 6. of the Christian Church very justly expressed great displeasure against those who out of an ill temper would even undeservedly lay things to the charge of the Bishops and Clergy that they might lessen their reputation and esteem and hinder the Churches peace and settlement and promote disturbances therein And such disorderly practices though they have too much prevailed in the World do greatly offend against very many precepts of Religion both towards God towards our selves and towards others But while the Christian Church for peace and order sake and for the sake of piety too required a just honour to be preserved to its Officers it still maintained such a care of true goodness that where any of the Clergy were really faulty it not only (l) ibid. allowed regular accusations to be orderly prosecuted against any of its Officers but also appointed (m) Can. Ap. 74. Antioch 14 15. its Censures to be inflicted upon them after sufficient evidence of their offences 10. Now our blessed Lord Thus our Saviour practised in his sharp censures of wicked men acted nothing but what was every way suitable for him to do When he came into the world Religion was strangely defaced amongst the Jews and they who should have taken the care of it set up very many false doctrines and ill rules of practice But our Saviour was sent as a great Prophet and Teacher

the case of many great and famous actions in the world which are now buried in oblivion or upon misinformation condemned but would have been honourably esteemed if they had been truly known And here the Tradition of the Turks concerning the precepts of Mahomet which were liable to mistake would probably have been lost if they had not been preserved in a written Alcoran And the Traditional evidence of this very Alcoran containing his Doctrine is much inferior to the Tradition of Christians for the Scriptures containing the Doctrine of Christ for even from the beginning of the reception of the Turkish Alcoran their Tradition hath not procured it so full approbation but that the Persians who profess themselves Mahometans deliver another Alcoran different from that of the Turks which they declare to contain the true precepts of Mahomet whereas Primitive Christians have as with one mouth all acknowledged that the Scriptures of the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists contain the Doctrine of Jesus Christ written by Divine inspiration Now to apply all this to the Doctrine of Christ It is certain 1. that many things delivered by him are capable of misunderstanding and not so easily intelligible as Mahomets existence is which is evidenced by the many mistakes in all Ages and disputes amongst true Catholick Christians as well as Papists about Doctrines of Religion 2. The Doctrine of Christ is likewise lyable to be perverted thus as in the time of the Old Testament the precepts of God were much corrupted by the Scribes and Pharisees who made void the Commandments of God by their Traditions so under the New Testament have many Hereticks grossly perverted this truth and many extravagant Opinionists have strangely blended it with their own misconceptions whence many errors are gone forth into the world 3. Nor can it be proved that in the way of Oral Tradition considered without Scripture all things delivered by Christ are continued in the Church for since in the multitude of Christs words not written by the Apostles or Evangelists the Romish Church cannot say that her Tradition hath preserved any how can the certainty of this Tradition be reasonably imagined so great as to secure a preservation of every Doctrine Now let us again observe that all these Considerations have the greater advantage against the certainty of Tradition by considering with them the many successions of Generations for matters of Faith if but once a little mistaken in one Generation since they must with these mistakes be delivered to the next Generation they may then be more mistaken and so by degrees very considerable mistakes and great corruptions may come in in points of Faith and as to omission of delivery of some truth if it be continued in several Generations yet if it be not impossible that any one Generation as to any truth should neglect the delivery it will in so many successions be very probable that some one hath failed But in the way of Scripture evidence the words are the same which were then delivered and the same words are no more capable of mistakes and corruptions in Doctrine than they were at the first nor are they less delivered to us now than they then were I may now infer from what is abovesaid that the belief of Mahomets existence may be continued by Tradition and yet it may not preserve the whole Body of Christs Doctrine § 4. He observes That humane authority or testimony is such that none are so mad as to doubt them but he that considers Joh. 3.16 1 Cor. 3.9 Mat. 6.26 will be convinced that the wayes of Providence to bring about mans salvation are so much above all others that others in comparison scarce deserve the name of a Providence We own Christianity much more certain than other Histories and things but that the preserving its certainty depends much more on Scripture than on Tradition is evident partly from reason because in a set form of written words a change cannot be so easily made without plain discovery as it may be where there is no such set form of words and partly from considering matters of fact whereby it may appear that Hereticks and opposers of the truth have more corrupted and spread corruptions of Christian Doctrine by their false delivery than ever they could corrupt and spread any corruptions of the Scripture-writing § 5 6. We will touch of the advantages superadded to nature It is natural for every man to speak truth unless some design hinder but true Christian hearts are much more fixt to Veracity § 7. Original corruption leads men to violate Veracity by an undue love of Creatures but Christianity working an overpowering love of Spiritual good leaves mans disposition to truth free § 8. The hopes and fears of Christianity as much exceed others as eternity doth a moment and are so held by all yet other Motives bring down matters of fact truly as the Reigns of Kings Wars Eclipses c. but that Christian Motives are more prevalent than all others appears by considering the Martyrs and Persecutions In answer to this I first observe that what he hath here laid down as a high security to the Churches Tradition makes nothing at all so much as seemingly for the securing all or any of its members from mistakes and misapprehensions nor for the preserving the weak from being deluded by others subtilty All it seems to plead against is intentional deceiving without which there may be much error But yet even this design of deceiving may with many in the Church much prevail notwithstanding all indeavoured to the contrary by this Discourser Where Christianity takes full possession in the power of it it will ingage such men to truth and the love of Heavenly good and the minding of Spiritual hopes and fears but how many are there who profess Christianity who oft speak falshood and are tempted to sin by undue love of Creatures and do not guide their lives according to the hopes and fears Religion sets before them Therefore these things cannot assure us of preserving men from perverting truth or neglect of delivering it much less from ignorance and mistake And as in other matters of History many things are delivered amiss in the common fame but best in the allowed Records so it is also in Christianity § 9. The Ceremonies or Oaths tendered to Officers in a Commonwealth to ingage them to be true to their Trust have no proportion with the Sacraments of the Church applied to Christians that they may not prevaricate from the Faith of Christ These are indeed exceeding high obligations which lie upon Christians But besides that it is no waies credible that all Christians judged themselves hereby obliged to deliver in the way of Oral Tradition all matters of Faith directly as they received them by the same Tradition I say besides this its certain it obliges men as much to the purity of the Christian life as to hold fast the verity of the Christian Doctrine wherefore when it is certain